i thought you wanted me to blurb Disturbia.

my blurb is next level either way.

chrono im counting on this year to be the one where you fully surpass me as a internet user.


make me proud my son, i have nothing left to teach you.

I have no doubt you would have done an exceptional job, but I somehow got the impression you were displeased with your assignment.

You made a fine effort with that one in either case.

Because We Separate Like Ripples On A Blank Shore

#27.




Radiohead - Reckoner
(2991 Points, 12 Votes, 1 #1 Vote)

US Chart Position: #121

UK Chart Position: #74

SOMB Says: The instant spooky, cruel, heavy drums. The beautiful, sparkling rhythmic guitar that creeps in to join. The two hard-hitting drums that let you know that a frightened, illuminated Mr. Yorke is about to start. He can't wait to enchant us all. The beginning, simple word feels like a religious experience when it is sung. It sounds less like a word and more like a poetic, cryptic moan. Reckoner, one of Radiohead's many spell-binding tracks, has so many gorgeous layers that it never seems to age. It's timeless. It's nothing short of cruel perfection. "Dancing for your pleasure" is an exceptional line with wonderful meaning when Thom proclaims it. If I tried to sing this line, I wouldn't be able to pull it off with nearly as much supremacy. The romantic, innocent percussion and the dancing guitar match perfectly with the pleading, taunting lyrics.
At 2:23, we see a stimulating change. The angelic, soothing voice enters and the listener's hearts are filled with euphoria and wonder. Is that a inviting violin I hear? Yes. "Because we separate like ripples on a blank shore" is a mesmerizing, ancient plead for romance, for regret, for love. Thom innocently, yet aggressively hums himself towards a mystical transition with grand sincerity, allowing the perplexing track to sound like the fantastic beginning. But this time, it's vividly different. With a more orchestrated, heavenly feel, Reckoner begins to sound like a starry night with a tremendous downpour that transcends to a sensitive beauty. It's hard to feel anything but joy and comfort while hearing this divine song. It's reckless and vast. It's simple and complicated. It's desperate, yet mischievous. It's tremendous. It's fantastic. It's flawless. It creeps into your heart, and taunts your soul. It begs for forgiveness yet years for sin. Thom's voice mesmerizes his audience and pleads to be understood. His voice sooths the atmosphere and inherits universal compassion. The perfection fades away, allowing the listener to want nothing more than to hit repeat. Holy shit. There's a reason Reckoner is my most played song on iTunes. – SonicAlligator

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists:

Ranked Highest By: SonicAlligator (#1)

Also Ranked By: stignasty (#2), concertgoer (#4)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: In Rainbows

nah, i luv Deerhunter. i just thought it was weird because i had the song at #15 or something and it seemed like it might be a popular blurb for some people.

my morning didn't go as planned, but that was the outline of the blurb i was going to do regardless of what song it was. if i got Disturbia, it might've evolved into a dance battle or something.

thanks for the kind words too.

I Think Her Head Needed Medication

#26.




Neon Neon - I Told Her On Alderaan / I Told Her On Alderaan (Richard X Andress Mix)
(3006 Points, 16 Votes, Two #1 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

SOMB Says: Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, Boom Bip, a concept album about John DeLorean and a song referencing my second-favorite Star Wars planet? It sounded too good to be true. Collaborations, supergroups and ambitious concepts usually disappoint. Many poor souls are still recovering from the "super chocolate thunder bass licks" of Audioslave. But here is a collaboration that resulted in something wonderful. From the opening guitar to the falsetto "sil-VER py-lons in the sun" in the fade-out, this song might be the most smile-inducing thing I encountered all year. In a year when I was mostly in the mood to hear noise and darkness, this song shined like a technicolor gummy candylion; evidence that upbeat pop music can still get stuck between the teeth if it's done well. This song makes me want to laugh with a cute girl on a rollercoaster; it makes me want to stage my own community college production of Tron with this song used instead of that Journey love theme. It manages to simultaneously conjure memories and images of childhood arcade gaming, Max Rebo, crazy girls I've dated, the late-night GTA: Vice City sessions of '03 and John DeLorean fucking Raquel Welch in a Jacuzzi. It's the kind of nostalgic-for-the-'80s feel-good dance-pop The Killers and a whole host of others wish they were pumping out. And it's the kind of song I wish 20 artists would put out a year. Keep pumping out the musical projects, Gruff Rhys; you're our only hope. – UselessRocker

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Very Metal, UselessRocker (#1)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Stainless Style

bad news uselessrocker, but they blew that planet up!!!

Let Me Know, Is Your Heart Still Beating?

#25.




The Killers - Human
(3026 Points, 16 Votes)

US Chart Position: #39 (Hot 100), #6 (Modern Rock), #11 (Hot Dance Club Play)

UK Chart Position: #2

SOMB Says: The often misinterpreted lyrics by those who think they hear "denser" or EW, (who probably didn't understand it since it hasn't been used in a Grey's Anatomy episdoe) - ring sound and clear to those with open minds. Flowers clarifying in an interview about Hunter S. Thompson proclaiming that "America was raising a generation of dancers."

Flowers takes that a step further calling 'dancer' its own species. The fact that Flowers can incite this kind of debate about his lyrics shows his underrated skills as a lyricist. He isn't known as the greatest songwriter, but maybe in time he could achieve that.
Looking at a long line of simple, yet thoughtful lyrics:

"I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier"
"If I don't shine, then you don't shine"
and now
"are we human or are we dancer?"

Beyond the lyrics, the song is touching. It didn't have the explosiveness of the previous lead singles for the Killer's albums, but the Killers have the strength and confidence to shake things up going from a guitar heavy album to a joy division sound/electronica. I'm not sure if Flowers writes songs on an acoustic guitar, but this is definitely something I can see coming up as an acoustic version in the future. I listen to this track over and over trying to distinguish when the song peaks - the 2 min mark, the bridge, the softness of his voice in the closing?
I find it interesting that the Killers aren't trying too hard which makes feel the song is just all around 'very good' and 'simple' which makes it kinda perfect in a way. – Hero

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: "Mr. Brightside" (#40 of 2004), "Somebody Told Me" (#34 of 2004), "All These Things I've Done" (#71 of 2005), "When You Were Young" (#4 of 2006), "Read My Mind" (#23 of 2007)

Ranked Highest By: Tracy Jacks (#2)

Also Ranked By: thresholdofrevelation (#3)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: album

ridiculously high placement, but i do really like the song

Subpoenaed In Texas

#24.




The Hold Steady - Sequestered In Memphis
(3152 Points, 18 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

SOMB Says: A lot of overly pretentious critics have dismissed The Hold Steady for being a dumb bar band whose songs grow tiring due to repetitive lyrics about drunk teenage parties and debauchery. A lot of unintelligent, but slightly awesome partiers have championed the band for the same reason. Both camps need to take a step back and read between the lines if they’re to understand what The Hold Steady are really about.

The Hold Steady’s fourth album, Stay Positive, kicked off with what was arguably the best one-two song punch of 2008. The opener, Constructive Summer was a driving ode to our future’s potential – an “annual reminder that we can all be something bigger.” Constructive was a song that hinted at a desire to move beyond the debauchery of our younger years, years in which “drinking on top of water towers” may have been the most productive thing accomplished. The track that follows, Sequestered in Memphis, uses Finn’s lyrics to knock our minds back down from the clouds while the glorious ROCK & ROLL sound of the music simultaneously brings our bodies and spirits up even further. To describe the feeling I got first listening to this song would require a string of rock & roll based clichés about driving fast, hot summer days, hard nights, and all those things that have turned the classic rock ethos into a critical punch line. Suffice to say, this was, hands down, THE song of my summer.

Lyrically, Craig Finn seems to be singing to a generation of thirty something ex-rockers turned “professionals,” who despite having bigger, more adult goals in life, still occasionally find themselves looking desperately strung out the morning after, making excuses for yet another bout of shenanigans. Granted, there’s a very large percentage of the population who’ll never relate to these stories, and don’t really want to. For us die-hard fans who’ve grown with the band over their first four albums though, Sequestered in Memphis is just the kind of song upon which our fierce devotion has been built. This deep connection could be best explained by something Finn said in an interview earlier this year: “These are our lives. These are your lives.” And for those of us he was talking about, this song is damn near perfect. Thanks guys. – DrRosenpenis

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: "Chips Ahoy!" (#34 of 2006), "Stuck Between Stations" (#97 of 2007)

Ranked Highest By: DrRosenpenis, Tracy Jacks (#3)

Also Ranked By: farawaysoclose (#4)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Stay Positive

Look at those 2004/5 Killer's placements and then the rest of it, swap this with Spaceman at least this year.

Not a Hold Steady fan, but this song ain't bad.

We need to stop putting the Killers in our Top 40.

idk i thought it was because their music is worse than hyena shit and i wish they were all dead.

I Ain't Freakin'
I Ain't Fakin' This

#23.




The Ting Tings - Shut Up And Let Me Go
(3187 Points, 19 Votes)

US Chart Position: #55 (Hot 100), #34 (Modern Rock), #1 (Hot Dance Club Play)

UK Chart Position: #6

SOMB Says: I know very little about this band called The Ting Tings, and I am too lazy to do any sort of leg work on them before I write this blurb. I think I remember hearing somewhere that they’re a duo, and I know from their other great single this year that a lot of people don’t know the name of the lead singer. This is something I can completely relate to, because I have no idea what her name is. Barb? Joan? Esperanto? Who the fuck knows?

What cannot be denied, however, if the fantastic-ness of this song. You may say to me, “But the song was ridiculously overplayed! The Ipod commercials! The television appearances! Blah blah blah…” And you wouldn’t be incorrect. But this song is still fantastic, despite the fact that in the height of it’s popularity, you had a 62% chance of hearing it when you turned on your television.

One of the reasons I really like this song is that it feels very real. What I mean is that lyrically, this song perfectly illustrates how someone feels when they’ve ended a relationship. Early in the song, lead singer (Yolanda? Hilda?) declares, “Your jeans were once so clean/I bet you’ve changed your wardrobe since we’ve met”. And while this is completely insane, it perfectly captures that moment when you want to be angry with someone so badly, you will rant at them for no apparent reason. “What’s that? You’ve bought new clothes? Well…. FUCK YOU! Fuck you and your fucking clothes! They’ll never be as clean when I was doing your laundry, because only I know that fucking secret!” (HINT: The secret was Clorox laundry detergent). Also, it’s not clear how this relationship ended. The song is called, “Shut Up And Let Me Go”, but the chorus is filled with phrases with this lady (Serena? Chelsea? Mary?) like, “Now oh so easily you’re over me”. Well… which is it? It’s confusing and frustrating and crazy… which fits the mood perfectly. I am not freaking, and I am not faking this… it’s totally real.

Oh yeah… and it rocks. – MattDrufke

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: concertgoer, stignasty (#5)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: We Started Nothing

this sounds like drive by truckers or something(hold steady)

w/e, what movie or whastever was this song in, i've heard it before

i sometimes try to listen to and enjoy The Hold Steady and it's personally embarrassing every time. Boys and Girls in America is their only record that i can get through because there's lots of cool keyboards and the production is so bad that Craig Finn isn't as ridiculous.

OTM.

You and those keyboards.

Great DJ is the best Ting Tings song, and I don't think it's gonna place.

You Don't Like What You See
You Must Not Care For Me

#22.




Jay Reatard - See/Saw / Screaming Hand
(3379 Points, 16 Votes)

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

SOMB Says: "Have you read the poem, "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke? Probably not. Poetry is for pussies, right? But you should: it's about drinking and fighting and fucked up parents and how all these potentially rotten things can end up being part of something unexpectedly beautiful. I'm obviously also talking about Jay Reatard's "Screaming Hand" here. The story is pretty much identical to the one alluded to in Roethke's poem: a young boy with a degenerate alcoholic for a father cannot help but, at least in part, come to understand and love him. His methods aren't conventional, or even ideal, but there's something beautiful, or at least beguiling, in the simplicity of their conception and complexity of their execution. And now, obviously again, I'm also talking about Jay Reatard.

Now that we're past the scramble for limited vinyl, past the hailing of JR as the next rock 'n roll hero, and right in the middle of a mild backlash, we can probably talk plainly about the songs. What separates Jay Reatard from the Cheap Times, the The Barbaras, and Lovers! of the current garage punk popscape is deceptive simplicity. "See/Saw" and "Screaming Hand", on first blush, are all about simple hooks and grimy production, but each listen reveals an overwhelming amount of calculated craft. Both songs are filled with moments that seem to affect a sort of casual immediacy and simplicity, but they only achieve this by being complex in execution. The dirty production, the earworm melodies, the thrumming guitars - all combine to create a mood of thrown-together cool when the song is pretty much anything but. The end result is something so obvious that it must be simple, but - to appear as such - is necessarily complex in its parts and execution. Cultivating a mystique of casual carelessness means Reatard gets to have it both ways: he's a simultaneous punk rock demigod and pop craftsman. He gets to do something beautiful with these potentially rotten things." – dicorice

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: "I Know A Place / Don't Let Him Come Back" (#42 of 2007)

Ranked Highest By: Waterloo (#2)

Also Ranked By: dicorice (#5)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Matador Singles '08

i am familiar with the works of theodore roethke

only jay reatard single i bothered to vote for this year, and easily the best one of the bunch, and probably the only one i'll still listen to a year from now.

Pretty much, having TNmN lower down was fine but this a ridiculous placement of a mediocre song.

I think I voted "Always Wanting More" higher, but I shouldn't have. Nonetheless, I will be listening to both a year from now.

good blurb, dicorice

thank you, Slap Nutz

I Can Say I Hope It Will Be Worth What I Give Up

#21.




Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes / Creator
(3453 Points, 19 Votes)

US Chart Position: #36 (Modern Rock)

UK Chart Position: #27

SOMB Says: It’s rare that a musician manages to nail the dichotomy of their artistic entity on a debut single, and rarer still for both sides to represent some of the artist’s strongest output. A-side “Creator” is the “tails” side of the coin, an outlet for Santogold’s booty-dropping inclinations. It’s supremely confident in its abilities, confident enough to lead with a nails-on-a-soundboard caterwaul stuttered into a makeshift beat and Santogold rapping as if she can (she cannot). But she manages to overcome her limitations with a pulsing jungle drumbeat and sheer bravado (by the end of the first verse she is already “chosen” and by song’s end she’s muzzling her critics “like what”).

If “Creator” is the manifesto for Santogold’s explosive ego, she reins it in with a flip of the disc. “L.E.S. Artistes” may still offer cocksure name-calling, but its central tension lies in balancing the lyrical swagger with a truly vulnerable performance. The script follows the artist as a young hipster moving perilously between posteured Manhattanites (the music video further plays up the poise, fitting Ms. White atop a jet-black steed and walking her serenely through a Jodorowsky nightmare). But Santogold fails to play the part right; even through her harshest snubs, her voice crackles and wavers anxiously. The Creator is now an introvert, desperately hoping that her regrets and sacrifices don’t trail her through the city. It’s hard to imagine either of these songs existing without the other, balancing each other’s deficits and coalescing to define a compelling, contradictory artist. – Man Is Matter

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Alright Still, Man Is Matter (#4)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Santogold

the best Tegan & Sara song they never recorded.

Both of those Santogold singles have spectacularly pulled off worse artwork than the album. Wow.

Continues the trend of the top 40 being much worse than the bottom 40.

no opinion on this santa gold music

leans towards horrible though

otm

Reading the name "Santogold" is like gargling diarrhea, IMO.

Her music might be okay, though. Who knows.

Just Like A Refund I Make Her Bring That Ass Back

#20.




Lil Wayne - Lollipop (feat. Static Major) / Lollipop (Remix feat. Kanye West)
(3511 Points, 15 Votes)

US Chart Position: #1

UK Chart Position: #26

SOMB Says: it's Lollipop guys. Hot shit. Definitely the beginning of the vocoder era, yeah T-Pain was dabbling but we all know Wayne was the one to watch. This was his first #1 Billboard 100 hit not counting his guest appearance on Juvenile's "Ha," it all started right here, 2 Milli K8. Some people call bs on this track because he's singing instead of rapping, guess what, Kanye was doing that shit already on "Flashing Lights" and now the teacher is bitin the student, check out 808 State Heartbreak, nothing but a bunch of softbatch ball shrinkers, pretty much jus a white dude on playing "lollipop" 12 times on acoustic in the student quad, you all know that dude. Everyone knows kanye never got pussy in his life. Lollipop is fuckin fire, lick lick lick it, even brothas need guitars. – James Iha

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Singles Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: James Iha, Cinnamon Pooter, Chronodiggity (#2)

Also Ranked By: throughsilver, stphone (#3), boobs(#5)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Tha Carter III

I'm in the process of putting together and upping the last batch of mp3s so it'll probably be 20 minutes before #19-#1.

i can never understand if people actually like Lil Wayne... or if it's like a reality show you can't turn off?

interesting theory, please expound!

"Creator" definitely took me a while to get into, but now I can't get enough. I guess it just takes a few placement in TV shows to turn me around.

I like "L.E.S. Artistes" a little bit more each time I listen to it. I'll probably go 18 months without listening to it and then hear it again and think it's awesome.

"Lights Out" is definitely the most immediately pleasing of her singles. It'll be interesting to see how the songs hold up when she's not the "It" thing to listen to anymore.

Why am I downloading these terrible songs?

Great effort uploading them, though!

Lollipop is offensively low

I think you're right. I didn't realize the excellence of this song until I got my AKGs for xmas yesterday and listened the shit out of that track. Especially in context of the record, the thing is a beast. "No homo."

hey, three Weezer songs in the top 20

Nobody really likes hip hop, idk.

Not much of a theory there.

Leave "real" music to the Bon Ivers of the world.

"Lollipop" has always felt so average to me, but I understand it's appeal. I knew it would be large the moment I heard it, but I could have cared less if I had heard it again.

no i love plenty of hip hop, but Lil Wayne seems like Dave Chappelle parodying rap to me?

when we look back on 2008, we will also undoubtedly think of Lollipop. #20 on our countdown does not reflect well on the board



he's changing the world of hip-hop music, actually

where's the lyrics about the Gap??

Oh, Lil' Wayne is more talented than "Lollipop" would have you believe. A lazy effort on his part, but you gotta compromise a little if you want a #1 single in the U.S.

The fuck is up with that winking smiley? Poofter?

quite possibly...

just not for the better.